User error the main reason for data loss in SaaS

Spanning and EMC company has released the results of their data security survey, which was based on responses from 1,037 IT professionals in the U.S. and U.K..

The report revealed insights into crucial factors such as SaaS data protection, organisational confidence in SaaS data protection and some of the major concerns businesses have regards moving their precious data into the cloud.

IT professionals in both the US and UK determined that the leading cause of data loss from SaaS applications (43 per cent U.S.; compared to 41 per cent U.K.), was user error, which was way ahead of hacking or malicious intention.

Furthermore, Spanning's report also highlighted that more than 50 per cent of U.S. and U.K. IT pros said that e-mail/messaging will be deployed via SaaS in the next 12 months and that financial, HR and CRM applications will follow closely behind. There was also an indication that a gap exists between perception and reality of SaaS Data Protection Responsibility and that security, IT and the organisation mostly rely on their SaaS vendors for backup and recovery of SaaS applications (49 per cent in U.S., 42 per cent in U.K.), despite the prominence of data loss due to user error .

As a way to mitigate data loss, a popular method is to use a cloud-to-cloud backup provider for backup and recovery of their SaaS applications within the next 12 months (37 per cent in U.S., 31 per cent in U.K.).

“This survey not only validates the accelerating adoption of SaaS, but also that U.S. and U.K. IT professionals understand the importance of having a backup and recovery strategy for SaaS application data with only 7 per cent and 8 per cent respectively not planning or using any form of backup and recovery for their SaaS applications,” said Jeff Erramouspe, vice president and general manager of Spanning.